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If you're not using Twitter to
connect with customers and market your startup then perhaps
you should reconsider.

In social media, Twitter is a force to be reckoned with. While
lacking the massive scale of Facebook, the popular microblogging
platform that went public last fall is making noticable strides
in users and profits.

As part of its earnings statement yesterday, Twitter said its
number of monthly average users grew to 271 million -- up 24 percent
year-over-year. (That, coupled with a 129 percent increase in
revenue, drove Twitter's stock up about 30 percent in
after-hours trading.)

With so many people actively using Twitter, adding it to your
online marketing arsenal might be a wise idea. And if you're
going to be on Twitter, you better know how to use it right.

With that in mind, here are 10 tips for mastering the art of
Twitter marketing:

1. Don't just tweet headlines and links.
Yes, we're all strapped for time. And, yes, tweeting a headline
and a link is easy. But first consider: Is that a message
you'd want to engage with? Probably not.

Mix it up. Tweet quotes, questions or snippets of interesting
details or numbers -- anything your followers would want to click
on and interact with.

Also, don't only tweet marketing messages about your company.
Inject some life into your tweets. Is something special or
out-of-the-ordinary happening at your office today? Tweet a photo
of it. Come across a helpful article? Tweet that, too.

2. Understand how to use the @ symbol.
This is a big one on Twitter. Where you place the @ symbol can
make a big difference in the meaning and delivery of your tweet.

The @ symbol notes the beginning of a user's Twitter handle. For
instance, mine is @jwfell. You'll use this whenever you want
to mention someone and call their attention to your tweet.

However, if you hit the Reply button or simply start a tweet
using someone's handle, only people who follow you and follow
that person will see your tweet in their feeds. In order for
everyone you follow and everyone else who also follows that
person, start your tweet with another symbol.

For instance, here's a tweet I sent in reply to a tweet from @qz.
Only people who follow me and Quartz could see it:

@qz based on one survey of
666 people and another of 500 people? feels like big
conclusions from a small sample, no?

3. Also know (and love) thy hashtag.
Using the hashtag symbol can be a fun and useful way to start and
track conversations on Twitter. The idea isn't to hashtag just
any string of words but to use meaningful hashtags that are
related to the conversation and that people might search for.
Sometimes conversations using hashtags become so popular they
begin trending, meaning lots of people are using it.

Be smart about the hashtags you use. Sometimes hashtags for
positive marketing purposes get "hijacked" and used negatively
against the company that started it. Some recent examples of
hijacked hashtags include some from McDonald's, JPMorgan
Chase and the New York City Police Department.

4. Remember, quality not quantity.
Yes, you want to tweet regularly to keep your followers
engaged and coming back for more. But you don't want to tweet all
the time simply for the sake of tweeting. Filling someone's feed
with low-quality content can make them unfollow you.

Your purpose on Twitter should be similar to the purpose of being
in business: to add value to people's lives. Make sure what
you're tweeting is informative, interesting and helpful.

5. Be patient.
Unless you're a celebirty or other well-known figure, your brand
probably won't come with a built-in following. And don't bank on
your first tweet going viral. Building a sizable following from
scratch takes time.

7. Avoid the dead zone.
So, you're tweeting high-quality content, you're engaged and
engaging -- but what if you're doing all this when your followers
aren't actually on Twitter? Just like any other social platform,
you want to be where your followers are and when they're
there.

People tend to be off of Twitter between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. local
time. (For reference, people tend to check Facebook until about
midnight before unplugging for the day.) The " sweet spot " for
tweeting is said to be between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

8. Get smart and monitor Twitter's data.
You want to monitor your efforts and levels of success on
Twitter. While a lot of people get caught up stressing about
follower numbers and how many times they're retweeted, you can
use Twitter to track sentiment about your brand. You want to know
who's talking about your brand, what they're saying and areas
where you can improve.

You can also track how many people clicked on your post, where
they clicked from and if they made a purchase on your page.

10. If you can't beat 'em, mute 'em.
Sometimes even the people you enjoy following most on Twitter can
get annoying. Maybe someone is on an epic rant about politics.
Perhaps the person is live-tweeting an event that you don't care
about. You don't neccessarily want to unfollow the person to
follow them again later on. What to do?

Mute them. Earlier this summer, Twitter rolled out a mute button
that allows you to stop someone's tweets from showing up in your
timeline until you un-mute him or her. Pretty simple. Pretty
convenient.